Using feminist deconstructive strategies, this paper exposes some of the rhetorical and cultural conditions that have sustained the organizational leadership literature as a seductive game. The juxtaposition of 'leadership' and 'seduction' functions as the focus of analysis for understanding the cultural limits of know ledge at times when innovations in theory and research are expected, but do not seem to be happening. Through various analytical approaches, the paper creates 'reading effects' that may be unsettling for the community of organizational scholars. This opens different spaces for reflecting upon and arguing against the closure imposed by organizational research and theory on what can be said to be organizational knowledge.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Academy of Management Review1989 'Special Forum on Theory Building', Vol. 14: 486-594.
2.
Acker, Joan1987'Hierarchies and jobs: Notes for a theory of gendered organizations' . Paper presented at the American Sociological Association annual meetings, Chicago, August.
Botti, Hope1988Portare le Differenze sul Lavoro: Due Utopie a Confronto. Paper presented at the conference Gestire le Differenze, sponsored by C.I.S.L , Milan, June 1-2.
10.
Brenton, Myron1966The American male. New York: Coward-McCann .
11.
Burke, C.1989'Romancing the philosophers: Luce Irigaray' in Seduction and theory. D. Hunter (ed.), 226-240. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
12.
Burrell, Gibson1984 'Sex and organizational analysis', Organization Studies5/2: 97-118.
13.
Burns, James McGregor1978Leadership. New York: Harper and Row.
14.
Burrell, Gibson, and Jeff Hearn1989'The sexuality of organizations?' in The sexuality of organization . Jeff Heam, Deborah Sheppard, Peta Tancred-Sheriff and Gibson Burrell (eds.), 1-28. Newbury Park, Cal: Sage.
15.
Calás, Marta B.1986a 'The unavoidable contextual and cultural bases of attribution of leadership research: A literary/ literature review'. Paper presented at the Academy of Management meeting, Chicago, August.
16.
Calás, Marta B.1986b 'Cultural and contextual grounds for leadership: A mosaic of leadership theories'. Paper presented at the Southern Management Association meeting, Atlanta, November.
17.
Calás, Marta B.1987Organization sciencelfiction: The postmodern in the management disciplines. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA.
18.
Calás, Marta B.1988'Gendering leadership: The differe(a)nce that matters' . Paper presented at the Academy of Management meeting, Anaheim, August.
19.
Calás, Marta B., and Linda Smircich1988'Reading leadership as a form of cultural analysis' in Emerging leadership vistas. J. G. Hunt, R. D. Baliga, H. P. Dachler , and C. A. Schriesheim (eds.), 201-226. Lexington : Lexington Press.
20.
Calás, Marta B., and Linda Smircich1989'Using the F word: Feminist theories and the social consequences of organizational research'. Paper presented at the Academy of Management meeting, Washington, D.C., August.
21.
Cixous, Helene, and Catherine Clement1986The newly born woman. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
22.
Cooper, Robert, and Gibson Burrell1988 'Modernism, postmodernism and organizational analysis: an introduction'. Organization Studies9/1: 91-112.
23.
Davidson, A.I.1986'Archaeology, genealogy, ethics' in Foucault: A critical reader. D. C. Hoy (ed.), 221-233. Oxford : Basil Blackwell.
24.
Derrida, Jacques1976Of grammatology. Translated by G. C. Spivak. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
25.
Derrida, Jacques1978Spurs. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
26.
Derrida, Jacques1981Positions. Translated by A. Bass. Chicago : University of Chicago Press.
27.
Derrida, Jacques1982Margins of philosophyChicago: University of Chicago Press.
28.
Derrida, Jacques1986Glas. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
29.
Diamond, Irene, and Lee Quinby1988Feminism and Foucault: Reflections on resistance. Boston: Northeastern University Press.
30.
Exner, M.J.1932The sexual side of marriage. New York: Norton.
31.
Ferguson, Kathy E.1984The feminist case against bureaucracy. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
32.
Flax, Jane 1990Thinking fragments: Psychoanalysis, feminism, and postmodernism in the contemporary west. Berkeley: University of California Press.
33.
Foucault, Michel1973The order of things. New York: Vintage Books.
34.
Foucault, Michel1979Discipline and punish. New York: Vintage Books.
35.
Foucault, Michel1980The history of sexuality. New York: Vintage Books.
36.
Foucault, Michel1986The uses of pleasure. Translated by R. Hurley. New York: Vintage Books .
37.
Foucault, Michel1988'On power' in Michel Foucault: politics, philosophy, culture . L. D. Kritzman (ed.), 96-109. New York: Routledge.
38.
Freud, Sigmund1965/1933 'Femininity' in New Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis. New York: Norton.
39.
Gallop, Jane 1982The daughter's seduction: feminism and psychoanalysis. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
40.
Gallop, Jane1987'French theory and the seduction of feminism' in Men in feminism. A. Jardine and Paul Smith (eds.), 111-115. New York: Methuen.
41.
Gallop, Jane 1988Thinking through the body. New York: Columbia University Press.
42.
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins1915/1979Herland. New York : Pantheon Books.
43.
Hearn, Jeff, and Wendy P. Parkin1984'Women, men, and leadership: A critical review of assumptions, practices, and change in the industrialized nations'. International Studies of Management and Oganizations , 14: 38-60.
44.
Hearn, Jeff, and Wendy P. Parkin1987 'Sex' at 'work'. New York: St. Martin's.
45.
Hearn, Jeff, Deborah L. Sheppard , Peta Tancred-Sheriff, and Gibson Burrell, editors 1989The sexuality of organizationsNewbury Park, Cal.: Sage.
46.
Hunter, Diane, editor 1989a Seduction and theory: Readings of gender, representation, and rhetoric. Urbana: University of Chicago Press.
47.
Hunter, Diane1989b 'Introduction' in Seduction and theory: Readings of gender, representation, and rhetoric. D. Hunter, (ed.), 1-10. Urbana: University of Chicago Press.
48.
Irigaray, Luce1985a The speculum of the other woman. Translated by G. G. Gillman . Ithaca: Cornell University Press .
49.
Irigaray, Luce1985b This sex which is not one. Translated by G. G. Gillman . Ithaca: Cornell University Press .
50.
Jameson, Frederic1983'Postmodernism and consumer society' in The anti-aesthetic: essays on postmodern culture. H. Foster (ed.), 111-125. Port Townsend, WA: Bay Press.
51.
Jardine, Alice A.1985Gynesis. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
52.
Kanter, Rosabeth Moss1977Men and women of the corporation. New York: Basic Books.
53.
Krupnick, M.1987'Introduction' in Displacement: Derrida and after. M. Krupnick (ed.), 1-17. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
54.
Lasch, Christopher1979The culture of narcissism. New York: Warner Books.
55.
Lewicki, Roy J.1981'Organizational seduction: Building commitment to organizations '. Organizational Dynamics (Autumn): 5-21.
56.
Loden, Marilyn 1985Feminine leadership or how to succeed in business without being one of the boys. New York: Times Books.
57.
Maccoby, Michael1976The famesmen. New York: Bantam Books.
58.
Marshall, Judi1984Woman managers: Travellers in a male world. Chichester: Wiley.
59.
Martin, Joanne1990'Deconstructing organizational taboos: The suppression of gender conflict in organizations'. Organization Science1/4: 339-359.
60.
McGregor, Douglas1960The human side of enterprise. New York : McGraw Hill.
61.
Meindl, James, Ehrlich, S.B., and Dukerich, J.M.1985 'The romance of leadership'. Administrative Science Quarterly30: 78-102.
62.
Mintzberg, Henry1973/1980The nature of managerial work. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall.
63.
Oxford English Dictionary1989 Second Edition. Oxford : Clarendon Press.
64.
Perin, Constance1990'The moral fabric of the office: Panopticon discourse and schedule flexibility' in Research in the sociology of organizations. Special volume: Organizations and professions. Pamela S. Torbert and Steven R. Barley (eds.), 243-270. Greenwich: JAI Press.
65.
Peters, Thomas J., and Robert H. Waterman1982In search of excellence. New York: Harper and Row.
66.
Piercy, Marge 1976Woman on the edge of time. New York: Fawcett.
67.
Piva, Paola1988'Towards a dynamic management of the differences between men and women in organizations'. Paper presented at the conference Gestire le Differenze, sponsored by C.I.S.L, Milan, June 1-2.
68.
Rosener, Judy B.1990 'Ways women lead'. Harvard Business Review (Nov.-Dec.): 119-125.
69.
Slater, Philip1977Footholds; Understanding the shifting family and sexual tensions in our culture. Boston: Beacon Press.
70.
Webster, Jane, and William Starbuck, H.1988 "Theory building in industrial and organizational psychology'. International Review of Industrial and Organizational Psychology: 93-137.
71.
Websters Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary1988Springfield, MA: Merrian-Webster.
72.
Westkott, Marcia 1986The feminist legacy of Karen Homey. New Haven: Yale University Press.
73.
Zuboff, Shoshana1988In the age of the smart machine: The future of work and power. New York: Basic Books.
